Managing Your Money Series | Financial Planning in Malaysia

Financial planning is the first step to taking responsibility of your money. Four steps are involved:

1. Set your financial objectives.

2. Know where your money goes.

3. Examine your spending patterns.

4. Create a spending strategy.

Step 1: Set your financial objectives

Financial objectives represent things you desire to accomplish with your money for a specific length of time.

Setting objectives will make sure you spend and save in a manner that allows you to attain your goals. 

Your financial objectives might be for short term, medium term or long term based on circumstances such as your age, income, marriage status and family obligations.

Step 2: Know where your money goes

Next, you need to know how you have spent your revenue or money.

Do this by jotting down your expenditures over a period of time, say eight weeks.

Your documentation is really important.

You can put all this info in Google Document online so that it is easily accessible.

Your purpose is not to limit your spending but to track where you have spent your money.

Step 3: Examine your spending habits

If you realize that you have no extra cash or you would want to build your savings, you need to review your spending patterns.

Look over your list of expenditures and ask yourself whether they are necessities or desires.

Trim off the desires and search for symptoms of negative spending patterns that you need to modify.

Step 4: Create a spending plan

Once you have examined your spending patterns, you can now build a spending plan that will help you to attain your financial objectives.

Happy Investing! 😉